The Natural

The Natural (1984) is Barry Levinson's baseball drama starring Robert Redford, and you can watch it online on iFILM. It traces the life of Roy Hobbs, a once-in-a-generation hitter whose shot at glory is shattered at nineteen and then, impossibly, begins again.

Young Roy boards a train to Chicago carrying a homemade bat and a gift no one can explain. Then a single night with a mysterious woman ends his career before it starts. Fifteen years later, in 1939, a graying middle-aged rookie turns up out of nowhere on the league's worst club, the New York Knights. Nobody takes the old man seriously until his swings start tearing the cover off the ball, and the ghosts he left behind come collecting.

Redford is backed by Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger and Robert Prosky. Caleb Deschanel shoots the ballpark like a cathedral, and Randy Newman's score turns the final at-bat into something close to scripture. It's a slow, golden-lit film for anyone who likes their sports stories told as fables of a second chance. Stream The Natural (1984) online on iFILM.